Fansite Questions & Answers, HQ GDC Slides

Battle.net Site Updated With New Skill Videos Part 3
Blizzard has added even more skill videos to their site! Enjoy ( In case you missed the old list, it can be found here as well as the list after there found here.

Q. People keep asking about the wings perk from the Collector’s Edition:

How will your character receive this item?

Will each character have the item, or does it have to be shared across your characters (like heirloom items did in WoW)?

If a unique item, how will transferring the wings work?

Can the wings be accidentally sold or destroyed?

How will these wings work on a HC character when they die -- do you lose them?

Each character you make will receive CE items in their inventory. They cannot be dropped, but can be destroyed if you want the inventory space, for example. If you want them back you can transfer through the shared stash from another character.

Q. Also will there be items similar to the wings (fluff items) that drop in game later?
No plans for any right now, but we’re not opposed to it. The amount of equippable items we have is pretty intense.

Q. Some players are starting to suggest that the use of “yards” in elective mode skill descriptions is a bit misleading. Players feel that the area of effects are much smaller than the tooltips indicate and joke that their characters must be at least 15 feet tall if the tooltips are accurate. Have we put any thought into changing the unit of measurement or reducing the numerical values to better the distance of the abilities?
We’re well aware that it’s not entirely accurate, but once you use the ability once or twice you understand how it’s supposed to perform. With the fast and furious action of Diablo III, the exact measurements really aren’t as important as how you actually understand and use the skill.

Q. Will the Collector’s Edition dyes have any sort of "particle effect" on the items, or are they simply dying them with a unique color?
No they don’t have particle effects. For now they can technically only be single color gradients.

Q. Will dyes be shown on gear on the AH? (For example: "This gear is dyed 'Off-White.' ") This is semi-important because of Collector’s Edition dyes. Players anticipate that since this dye will be rare, it will carry more value within the community.
No, dyes are removed from items when you put them on the AH.

Q. As a follow up to that, can items dyed with Collector’s Edition dyes be placed on both auction houses?
Absolutely, but the dye color is removed. Dyes are not removed if an item is dropped/traded, though.

Q. Will the AH be a part of the game world (find an auctioneer in the city to do it) or is it staying in the game menu?
We think it’d be cool, but no it’s only within the Battle.net menu.

Q. Can we expect any achievements that aren’t strictly focused on game mechanics? For example, there’s rumor that finding and killing Bashiok in game is an achievement. Are these going to be similar achievements that are more Easter Egg-like and inspired by the community?
Yes, we have many achievements that ask you to do something weird or crazy or just difficult to pull off.

Q. We’ve already shared that cosmetic rewards will be coming with some achievements. We know about the banners, but are there any other rewards we haven’t yet mentioned that we could also share with the community?
We don’t have any now, no. Titles and cosmetic item rewards would be cool but it’s a wish list item for the future. All achievement rewards are banner related, which we think is pretty cool as it displays very prominently when forming groups, as well in-game at the waypoint hubs.

Q. Will there be feat of strength achievements (I.E. first person to hit 60)?
We do have feats of strength but not one specifically for first to 60.

Q. Will you be able to bind Force Move to a mouse key?
You can bind it to anything but primary and secondary mouse buttons, but it can be bound to any other mouse buttons.

Q. Since there seems to be a cap for adventurer stats ( +MF/+GF), will the stacks refresh on a Rare or Champion kill after you hit stack cap? Example: Say a stack cap of 5, on the 6th Rare/Champion kill, will the whole stack refreshes?
The whole stack refreshes.

Q. Will there be difficulty-exclusive random events/quests?
We don’t have any, no. It’s not a bad idea so maybe it’s something we could look into for the future.

Q. When does the exit indicator appear on the mini-map? When you are within range or when your character can see it (line of sight)?
When you’re within range.

Q. Will weapons with elemental affixes get extra damage against their elemental counter-part (e.g. Holy weapons get more damage against undead)?
No, we don’t want people to feel like they’re forced to carry around a bunch of weapons with each damage type and swap them in and out to remain effective. We actually had it in the game at one point where each damage type had a secondary effect, and we were super excited about it, and then we played it and it just sucked. It sounds super cool, but in practice it just forces too much on the player and makes decisions for them on which types of items are best based on the damage type.

Q. Will poison damage stack?
DoTs can stack, and the DoT can be poison based, but poison is not inherently a DoT.

Q. In Hardcore Mode, will players receive damage from collapsing/destroyed walls and/or parts of the décor (as it is not the case in Normal Mode)?
No. Hardcore is the exact same as “softcore” in every way, you just can’t die more than once.

Q. Will the Scroll of Companion (if/when it returns) be cute and cuddly or will it be more visually gritty and dark (keeping in line with the rest of the creatures in D3)?
If companions return, we have no idea. There may be some cute and cuddly things. Cute and cuddly things can and do exist in Sanctuary. They just may get stepped on by a demon. We’d make an effort to create more dark and gritty companions though, if we do revisit the system.

Q. Will you be looking at the visuals of the Wizard skill "Blizzard" and “Meteor” after the community's negative reaction to it? Players aren’t impressed with their current visuals as compared to those in D2.

There are plenty of people that like them, and plenty of people that like one or more of the rune variants. No, we don’t have any plans to make changes to any skill visuals.

Q. Are you guys happy with where the Witch Doctor is as of patch 15? We noticed as of the last few patches, particularly 14 to 15 the WD has received an enormous amount of tuning compared to the other classes and currently feels a little overpowered at early levels.
Balance is always ongoing. It’s possible the build for patch 15 caught us at a point where we had made a lot of witch doctor changes and not changes to other classes? We generate beta patches to test ongoing updates, and don’t wait to make sure each class has had equal attention. We’re very happy with class balance on our internal builds.

Q. Since arena is temporary out of picture. Is there any other way to take participate in PvP after D3 launch? Do you plan to implement world pvp mode like D2?
No. There are many reasons why we’re focusing PvP into the arenas and not bringing back hostility. PvP Arenas will only be a few months after release, and in that time people will be trying out classes and perfecting their gear and builds. When they do arrive they’ll be an awesome addition to the game, and players will be ready to face off in some awesome PvP action in a designed and crafted experience.

Q. How does the new “Nephalem Valor” mechanism work in multiplay game? Say if 4 player kill rare creatures separately, will they receive buffs from other players’ killing credit? Or the buff will be counted separately.
Everyone in the game gets the buff when a champion/rare is killed.

Christian Lichtner GDC Slides - HQ
Blizzard also sent us the high quality version of the GDC slides we posted a couple of weeks ago, see below!

The issue here is a symptom of our internal measurement (feet) not translating directly to yards, and as only the US uses feet as a measurement we opt to show a measurement the majority of the world understands.
So, 'feet' isn't used around the world (true), but 'yard' is? Come on

Q. Will the AH be a part of the game world (find an auctioneer in the city to do it) or is it staying in the game menu?We think it’d be cool, but no it’s only within the Battle.net menu.

They think it'd be cool but didn't implement it? How hard could it be? These types of answers annoy me.

Q. Some players are starting to suggest that the use of “yards” in elective mode skill descriptions is a bit misleading. Players feel that the area of effects are much smaller than the tooltips indicate and joke that their characters must be at least 15 feet tall if the tooltips are accurate. Have we put any thought into changing the unit of measurement or reducing the numerical values to better the distance of the abilities?

We’re well aware that it’s not entirely accurate, but once you use the ability once or twice you understand how it’s supposed to perform. The issue here is a symptom of our internal measurement (feet) not translating directly to yards, and as only the US uses feet as a measurement we opt to show a measurement the majority of the world understands. With the fast and furious action of Diablo III, the exact measurements really aren’t as important as how you actually understand and use the skill.

This is such an jaw-dropping idiotic answer to the question... it can only come from Blizz.

Why not directly indicate the effect-ranges in unicorn horns or rainbow-colored My little Pony-tails... with the fast and furious action of Diablo III, the exact measurements really aren’t as important as how you actually understand and use the skill...anyways.

Q. How does the new “Nephalem Valor” mechanism work in multiplay game? Say if 4 player kill rare creatures separately, will they receive buffs from other players’ killing credit? Or the buff will be counted separately.
Everyone in the game gets the buff when a champion/rare is killed.

This is still not 100% clear. In a group of 4, if 1 person re-specs does not affect the other 3 in the party. Or just the person who respecs.

Anyone else prefer the first iterations of Diablo and Azmodan to skinny Alien Diablo and fatty Azmodan?

I like fatty Azmodan. The original one looks so stupid and boring. I like Original Diablo though. I agree with Molster (?), Diablo as a salamander demon would look sweet.

Considering it's likely high level armors and weapons will be loaded with particle effects if WoW is any indication, having additional ones on the dyes would just be overkill.

Yes the answer to the measurement question is completely stupid. If the measurement isn't accurate, there's no point in even having the measurement in the description. Might as well dumb it down to "small area" "medium area" and "large area."

So basically does this mean the CE dyes are free "Pale" and "Rogue" dyes (those that acquirable by anyone) that are infinite? Since on the main site they're also stated to be beige and dark gray? If so, that's not really what I deem 'exclusive'.

If the measurement isn't accurate, there's no point in even having the measurement in the description.

It still works as comparison. A 4 yard area of effect is 1/3rd of a 12 yard effect.

Amusingly enough we lived through D2 using the same system.

Back when standards were much lower.

I don't understand why they don't just have a range indicator like you can see in DotA type games when you mouse over the skill. Then they can call the distance units whatever they want. PS As much as many of you will scream at the thought, I'm sure a lot of the reason behind using "yard" is how familiar their 10+ mil players on WoW are with it.

PS As much as many of you will scream at the thought, I'm sure a lot of the reason behind using "yard" is how familiar their 10+ mil players on WoW are with it.

Yes, that Diablo 2 used the same system years before has nothing to do with it what so ever. Yard and range counting in WoW is actually very exact while on the subject, that has never been the case in the Diablo world.

Anyhow, i managed to pick up and and use the rather familiar setting. I am quite sure most people will quickly learn what spells have roughly what range.